Blades
Brendan Ballard, known by his alterego Blades was a supernorm who sidekicked Volt during their teenage years, patrolling their hometown of Hastings. He was the fist one to know about Ben's neonic powers and helped him come to terms with these powers, suggesting he should become a 'superhero'. Personality Smart and always positive and upbeat, Brendan was shy growing up because of his short stature, which saw others "look over" him. He displayed a deep and grounded outlook, nevertheless, and was able to accomplish incredible things for a completely normal nonpowered Human Brendan is a gaming geek and collects old and rare gaming systems. History A very close friend of Ben during their secondary school days, Brendan was born in Hastings, England on June 13th 1984, which would in fact make him nearly a month older than Volt, despite him looking a lot younger. He had a pretty normal childhood, if slightly ignored at his primary school, due to his shortness, and spent most of his time indulging in video-games or rollerblading with friends, his only wish to become a video game designer. He first met Volt when they were both 12, keeping each other company during lonely break time sessions during their first year at school. By the different colour of their ties they were allocated to different Houses, but none-the-less always met up at breaks and lunch. At the time Brendan seemed fascinated with Ben's brightly mismatched eyes, but they always seemed to attract unwanted attention and when he began wearing brown contact lenses, the bullying seemed to continue, taunting him relentlessly, perhaps in reaction to Ben's sometimes eccentric behaviour as well, or the fact that every now and then he would actually stand up to them, especially when they began to pick on Brendan. The two supported and protected each other greatly from the bullying as a result of Ben's eye colours, even with the contacts. In return Ben provided support for Brendan on his lack of height, which was always a bane for him in his primary school, and they became very close within the first few days of their meeting, as if a natural rapport had formed with each other. Brendan was the first one to know of Ben’s neohuman gifts and one of the first ones to also experience his power, if not for the fact he was barely in the swimming pool water at the time Ben's powers manifested, he would have been killed along with three other kids; bullies from their school. He tried to help Ben deal with his powers as best a normal boy could, making him feel like he was not the freak he saw himself as, that he had a friend that would always be there, as well as dealing with the fact that he had actually killed three people, without even touching them. And just a few of his words would mould Ben's future forever. It was Brendan himself who suggested that Ben become a superhero in the first place, and that he was letting his powers go to waste. It was one thing to have powers, but another to have the skill to fight, and Brendan suggested the two learn martial arts. But Ben stalled, his indecision aided by strange feelings he was having, and Brendan also. It was around this time Brendan became aware of his bisexuality, as did Ben, but both denied it to themselves strongly, hardly talking about their true feelings, perhaps to stay away from even more confusion. Brendan particularly did not want to add more weight to Ben's problems. These feelings would wax and wane with the years, but for now, they were just good friends, and Brendan was glad to see him enjoying himself through the summer holidays. The two returned back to school and finally Ben agreed to start martial arts training, particularly Kung fu, Kendo and kickboxing. By luck, they happened to be taught by a real Chinese martial arts champion who lived in the town, Master Chow-Yung Pai, who seemed to be aware of the two's intentions as he watched their skills blossom. Although Pai never said to them directly his suspicions, he offered the advice that power comes at a price to the ego and to none more so then the duo themselves, who he saw worked very well as a pair. Ben and Brendan became good very quickly; Pai taking a keen interest in them, but this attention secretly enraged one of Pai's top students, Ross. The two seemed to be catching up with Ross at an incredible rate, despite Ross being 7 years older than the two 13-year-olds. But on the surface Ross remained calm, cool and very friendly, even teaching them a thing or two, out of honour of his Sensei Pai. They became quite good at what they did and cleaning up the town, but by the time they were 16, Volt had become more and more bitter and rageful at normal humans and this change seemed to drive the two apart. They split not long after leaving school as Ben went to Hastings College to study graphics. Some years later whilst Ben ventured of to America with James Greenwood Brendan began working for an international software company called Takashi-Starr Software Soloutions where he was transferred to Tokyo and dabbled in his vigilantism in the city, which caught the attention of Supersamurai. Whilst there he began testing new technology for Tenchi Technologies. Powers and Abilities Powers None, Blades is a normal human, however through years of specialised martial arts training, balancing exercises and aggressive inline skating, Blades’ agility, stamina, balance and reflexes are considered at the peak of human athleticism, while not considered superhuman, he can perform feats of agility, speed and stamina on par with, or even better than most Olympic-level athletes. Abilities Kickblade Expert'':' Blades’ most talented area is his unique style of kickboxing in which he uses his rollerblades as a primary weapon. Taught by his and Volt’s previous master Chow-Yung Pai, who most likely knew of the duo’s want to be superheroes (and certainly knew of Volt’s powers) Blades was taught to use intensive balancing exercises and specialised choreograph techniques called ‘taolu’ by Pai, and first had to be sufficient in regular Chinese kickboxing and French savate as well as karate. Pai, however only taught Brendan the basics as he was not proficient in any kind of skating skill, and over the years Blades developed his own sets of rules and adaptations, eventually calling the art ‘kickblading’. His unique style of fighting combined with his quickness and skill on wheels has made him a difficult opponent to beat, even against some superhumans. Kickblading is an utterly unique martial art currently only Brendan knows and it is difficult to master and perform and he must perform actions with precision and speed to counter the momentum of his body in motion with strikes and impacts. '''Expert Aggressive Inline Skater: From a young age Brendan has held his favourite hobby of rollerblading in high esteem, practising every day, and if not for his skills in computers, would most likely be a professional rollerblader. His kickblading skills have also added to his progression of fighting and agility to such a degree that if he keeps practising, he would be unparalleled by any kickboxer on the planet. Parkour Expert: He is skilled in finding his way across urban landscapes with ease using acrobatic manoeuvres, either on wheels or on foot and has combined elements of this into his kickblading style. Quick Thinker: Brendan had to train his mind to respond quickly to changes in movement and orientation. Although not superhuman by any degree, his reactions and sense of balance have been honed to a very high degree above that of most normal people. Computer Maintenance: He is skilled and fixing and maintaining complicated computer systems and hardware. ''Expert Programmer: ''Brendan’s skill with computers enables him to quickly programme or re-programme many forms of software in a verity of different programming languages He is able to grasp many formats of computer system has a high degree of skill for hacking too.Category:Characters Category:Supernormals